It's frickin' freezing here in Normally Sunny California, all the more so because a lot of houses have inadequate heating, e.g. my apartment. So--soup of the evening! Beautiful soup! Soup that can boil awhile and warm my apartment despite its inadequate heating!

Tonight, the Soup of the Evening is Pea Soup, modified slightly off that served at the long-time cult favorite road trip restaurant, Split Pea Andersen's. Served alongside will be the third of the two loaves of Finnish sourdough rye I made Saturday.

This recipe yields rather a lot--the usual recipe involves two quarts of water and one pound of peas; me, I'm feeding five and intend to schlurp on the leftovers until I leave town on Thursday, so I went pound-and-a-half. Happily, a local Good Grocery Store has bounteous bulk bins...

Ingredients

1.5

c

green split peas, sorted and rinsed

3

qt

low-sodium vegetable broth*

1

medium onion, coarsely chopped

2

medium carrots, coarsely chopped

2

ribs celery, coarsely chopped

1

ham shank, including the bone, cut into 4-6 large pieces†

2

pinches

cayenne pepper

1/2

t

dried thyme

3

md

bay leaves

salt and black pepper to taste

Directions

Sort and rinse peas. Add all ingredients to large Dutch oven and bring to a boil. Boil for twenty minutes, or until peas are cooked through, then reduce to a simmer. Fish out bay leaves and discard. Fish out ham shank, discard bone and dice meat.

Purée soup by any means necessary: food mill, sieve, blender, or so on. I like stick blender, myself, and I don't run my soup to baby food, either.